Yesterday delivered some major progress on the book I’m writing. But let me give you some background first.
The book is called Taking the Brick* and I’ve been working on it for almost 18 months. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever written, and also way better than anything I’ve ever written.
It’s not a heavy book. It’s about a bunch of misfits starting out as adults in Los Angeles in the 90s. And the misfits become a friend group. There’s a lot of action and fun characters, but at heart it’s a quick, light read. You’ll be able to read it in an afternoon. It’ll stay with you though.
Draft 1
I finished the first draft last spring, and I shared it with a few people. Young people, old people. And I got a pretty strong response.
- I shared a few chapters as audio recordings with some friends from LA. Then I suddenly started getting texts and emails out of the blue from people who’d been passed the recordings, and LOVED what they heard. It hit a powerful chord of nostalgia and evoked some strong emotions. That felt great.
- Alex and his close friends read it. In fact, we had a “book club” where they spent 3 hours on my porch giving me line by line feedback. But overall, they also LOVED it. One of them called it “self-help non-fiction” for young people entering adulthood.
- A handful of readers were grossed out by the “Puke Log” chapters
- My high school English teacher absolutely hated it
Overall, I got invaluable feedback and came away with some clear areas for improvement
- The main character was weak (especially compared with the other characters)
- The peripheral characters needed to be woven into the main story
- Lots of more specific things needed work
Draft 2
I finished the revisions last month. Which brings us to yesterday…
We reconvened the “book club” of Alex and his friends. Overall, they were happy with the draft. It read better and was overall much improved. However, once again there were clear areas for improvement:
- The main character is much better, but still not great (especially compared to the other characters)
- I need to change the name of the book! (they were unanimous on this point)
So I woke up at 5:30 this morning and my mind was whizzing. I have a clear way for improving the main character. I genuinely think I’ve got the path forward that will level up the whole book. I’m ready to dive into that.
HOWEVER…I genuinely have no clue about what to name the book now. And I guess the website, cover art…hoo boy!
Anyhow, that’s where we’re at.
NuckolBall 